Biography of Robert H. JohnstonJefferson County, IA Biographies

Robert H. Johnston, whose life span covers eight decades, is numbered among the citizens of Jefferson county
most worthy of honor and veneration, for his record has ever been one of ceaseless effort, honorable principles
and high purposes. His well directed labors, too, have brought him substantial success in the business world, and
he is now able to leave the active work to younger shoulders, enjoying the comforts of life which his prosperity
affords him. He was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of December, 1831, a son of Samuel and
Prudence (Hill) Johnston, both natives of Ireland, having been born near Belfast. There they were reared and married
and in 1825 came to Pennsylvania. The father operated the Pittsburg House on the Diamond, his time and attention
being thus engaged until his death in 1836. His widow later brought her family to Iowa, arriving in Van Buren county
in 1854, the home being established in Cedar township, east of Birmingham, where she resided until December 16,
1866, when she passed away at the age of seventy two years. The family consisted of four children, of whom the
three eldest, Margaret, William and Henry, are now deceased.

Robert H. Johnston, the youngest child of Samuel and Prudence Johnston, was a young man of twenty three years when
he came to Iowa with his mother in the fall of 1854. His education had been acquired in the Keystone state and
there he learned the shoemaker's trade, serving his apprenticeship near Pittsburg and following that occupation
for about seven years in Pennsylvania and also in Iowa. After his arrival in this state he spent one year in Scott
county and in the fall of 1855 removed to Van Buren county, where he remained until 1877. In the latter year he
came to his present place of residence, which has remained his home for thirty four years. His home farm, which
is located on section 36, Liberty township, about two miles north of Birmingham, on the Van Buren county line,
consists of eighty acres and is a well improved property, containing all of the accessories necessary to equip
a model farm. Indeed it is one of the most valuable and desirable places in Liberty township and in its excellent
condition is seen the result of a life characterized by earnest endeavor, by unfaltering energy and well directed
effort. It was but a natural sequence that as the years passed Mr. Johnston should prosper in his agricultural
undertaking and never was success more worthily won nor more richly deserved. He continued in the active management
of his interests until about five years ago, when he turned over the actual supervision of his farm to his sons
and is now living in honorable retirement.

The entire attention of Mr. Johnston, however, has not been concentrated in this one avenue, for during the past
nineteen years he has served as a director of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In like manner business
interests have not been permitted to exclude activity in other directions and he has an interesting military record
covering three years service in the Civil war as a soldier in the Union army. He enlisted from Van Buren county
on the 6th of August, 1862, being assigned to Company I, Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and remained with
that command until honorably discharged on the 6th of August, 1865, having in the meantime been detailed as bass
drummer of the regiment. He has since maintained pleasant connection with his old army comrades through his membership
in Newell Post, G. A. R., at Birmingham. He is a demisted Mason, while his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian
church, holding membership relations with that denomination at Birmingham. In politics he has ever given stalwart
support to the republican party and has been called to public service by his fellow citizens, filling the office
of township trustee for a number of years. He has also served as school director, being a warm advocate of the
cause of education, and he is equally stanch in his advocacy of material and moral progress, doing all in his power
to further the interests of the community in which he lives, in every possible way.

It was in 1852 that Mr. Johnston was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Shepler, who was born in Allegheny county,
Pennsylvania, on the 21st of February, 1828, a daughter of Peter and Mary (Paine) Shepler, both natives of the
Keystone state, where their last days were spent. The Johnston household was blessed with six children, as follows:
William, a farmer of Van Buren county, residing near Birmingham; Margaret, who married Jackson Kirkhart, of Cantril,
Van Buren county; Mary, at home; Maria, who married Albert Parker, of Derby, Lucas county; Reuben, a resident of
Liberty township; and Carrie, who passed away at the age of nine years. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of their wedding nine years ago and they confidently expect to celebrate their sixtieth anniversary
in 1912. Both have long since passed the Psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten and they can look
back upon a past which has been crowned with successful achievement and characterized by a development of high
ideals. Both have lived their lives to noble purpose and now in the evening of life they have in full measure the
unqualified respect, esteem and reverence which should ever be accorded old age.